AsheNews

Top Menu

  • Advert Rates

Main Menu

  • Home
  • General News
  • AGRICULTURE
  • Business/Banking & Finance
  • Entertainments & Sports
  • HEALTH
  • International
  • Investigation
  • Law & Human Rights
  • Advert Rates

logo

Header Banner

AsheNews

  • Home
  • General News
  • AGRICULTURE
  • Business/Banking & Finance
  • Entertainments & Sports
  • HEALTH
  • International
  • Investigation
  • Law & Human Rights
  • FoIA: ‘Traditionalist’ lawyer, Malcom writes CJN for financial details of Supreme Court

  • VIEWPOINT: Scientifically proven mnemonic training method gives your brain super memory, By Joshua Hawkins

  • Hijab: Lagos Muslim students give government  ultimatum to implement S/Court judgment

  • Lone auto crash claims 6 lives, 4 injured in Jigawa

  • 2023: INEC publishes particulars of presidential, national assembly candidates

FOOD & AGRICULTURE
Home›FOOD & AGRICULTURE›Eliminating Crude Ethanol Imports Through Enhanced Cassava Production

Eliminating Crude Ethanol Imports Through Enhanced Cassava Production

By Abdallah el-Kurebe
October 25, 2017
215
0

By ‎Abdallah el-Kurebe

“Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, producing about 40 million tons annually. It is one of the richest fermentable substances for the production of crude alcohol/ethanol.” – Foraminifera Market Research

Ethanol is also produced from cassava and is used as fuel, alcoholic beverages, perfumes, cosmetics, medicaments, etc.

Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava but the nation’s annual local demand of ethanol is between 300 and 400 million litres. The country only meets up with three percent of total annual demand. The balance of 97% is presently met through importation, requiring a whooping N160 billion – an expenses that must be curtailed.

Bridging the importation gap

Funded by the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UKAID), the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) came up with the Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-Processing (CAMAP) project. This brings cassava cluster farmers as producers and processors, who are up-takers, together.

Aimed at encouraging mechanisation thereby growing beyond subsistence, the cassava farmers are provided with farm inputs including fertilisers, insecticides, implement as well as taught best practices, under the project.

According to CAMAP project coordinator, Ayodele David, “A farmer spends 10 days to harvest cassava on a hectare of land while a farmer in India spends less than six hours on the same portion of land under mechanisation.”

He observes that appropriate mechanisation for cassava could support production, processing as well as developing its market along the value-chain.

AATF’s Communication and Partnership officer, Abu Umaru said that “CAMAP initially targeted 3.5 million farmers in five years but the project is so accepted by farmers that the number may be surpassed.

“The project connects cassava farmers with industrial users directly at competitive price,” he stressed.

David further asserts that CAMAP’s goal “is to enhance technologies to ease the production and processing of cassava by farmers thereby boosting food security, incomes and livelihoods for farmers, processors and marketers of the product.”

Umaru said that if traditional planting, harvesting and processing were upgraded, “competitive cassava commodity value-chain and reliable supply of processed cassava food products, including ethanol production, will be assured.”

The Allied Atlantic Distilleries Ltd (AADL) is the first and largest cassava-based ethanol producing plant in Africa and located at Igbesa in Ogun state. It has a 10 million litres installed capacity of ethanol per annum and requires an approximate 240 tons of cassava per day at an average of 10 tons per hour.

Rajasekar Rajavelu, AADL’s director of Agric operations said that CAMAP had facilitated steady daily supply of cassava to meet up with the requirement.

“Our partnership with AATF has assisted in having between 60 and 65 percent of cassava from which we produce nine million litres of quality ethanol per annum. This is a paltry three percent of the requirement.” The company is targeting 25% production of Nigeria’s ethanol requirement by 2022.

He opines that Nigeria risks importing ethanol that is of low quality because ethanol importers ‎are not concerned about quality.

“That the importers of ethanol are only traders means that quality does not occur to them. The imported ethanol has low quality. AADL produces ethanol from cassava varieties that has best ethanol,” Rajavelu said.

Country requirement of ethanol

Rajavelu said that Nigeria’s annual requirement of ethanol is between 300 and 400 million litres.

“Nigeria consumes between 300 and 400 million litres annually. AADL produces a paltry nine million litres (only three percent of total requirement) from fresh cassava tubers from 5,000 out-grower cassava farmers,” he said.

The director added that the company operates within a 150 kilometres radius covering Ogun and Oyo states in partnership with AATF.

“AATF introduced mechanised cassava farming on 1,000 hectares of land. The Foundation is playing a big role in cassava value-chain by way of providing the technology for farmers,” he said.

Farmer support for enhanced production

Farmers working under the CAMAP project are happy with AATF’s introduction of mechanisation for cassava production.

Abdulrazaq Alghazali is the leader of a cluster group of 15 youths that is cultivating a 40-hectare cassava farm at Igunrin village of Iseyin local government of Oyo state.

He said that AATF’s introduction of agricultural mechanisation for smallholder farmers has enhanced the production of cassava beyond subsistence.

“With AATF now, land clearing, planting, spraying and harvesting are done mechanically. For this 40-hectare farmland, AATF provided us with a tractor, plough, planter, sprayer as well as training us to use the tools,” he said.

Challenges

Among the challenges faced by, especially AADL are poor roads network and electricity supply.

The 20-minutes drive to the AADL ethanol factory in Igbesa takes about an hour from Lagos.

“This is a serious threat to our efforts to bridge the import gap of ethanol to Nigeria,” Rajavelu said adding, “Electricity is another challenge. Presently, we rely more on the company’s generating set for constant supply of electricity to enable us meet up with our production target.”

These are areas that state governments, especially Ogun and Oyo should come in, most especially that their farmers and other stakeholders along the cassava value-chain, are direct beneficiaries.

More so, AADL, apart from an employer of labour for Ogun youths, is also a major tax payer to the state government.

Getting rid of environmental pollution

Global warming is threatening the environment. Unlike fossil fuels which emit carbon dioxide contributing to 50 percent greenhouse effect, ethanol is safe, renewable and sustainable.

Government should therefore support mass production of ethanol for fuel. This will assist in depending less on petrol. Ethanol would readily be there as alternative.

As the world gets deeply concerned with the contribution of fossil fuel to environmental pollution, Nigeria should join in the initiatives that would allow for durable and environmental-friendly alternatives such as ethanol.

Previous Article

NARS confirms Bt Cowpea is safe for ...

Next Article

PRESS RELEASE: New AGCO agribusiness qualification set to ...

Abdallah el-Kurebe

Related articles More from author

  • FOOD & AGRICULTUREGENERAL NEWS

    Food security: Buhari orders deployment of refurbished tractors to farmers

    December 30, 2020
    By Editor
  • FOOD & AGRICULTUREGENERAL NEWS

    FOOD INSECURITY: FAO reiterates support to Nigeria’s efforts

    June 18, 2021
    By Abdallah el-Kurebe
  • FOOD & AGRICULTURE

    Sokoto Partners FG, World Bank on Large Scale Irrigation

    November 30, 2015
    By Abdallah el-Kurebe
  • COLUMNFOOD & AGRICULTUREPROF MK OTHMAN

    2021 World Food Day: Is Nigeria Food Secured? By Prof. MK Othman

    October 10, 2021
    By Abdallah el-Kurebe
  • FOOD & AGRICULTUREGENERAL NEWS

    NAF inaugurates 2,000ha farms project in Benue 

    April 28, 2021
    By Abdallah el-Kurebe
  • BUSINESS/BANKING & FINANCEFOOD & AGRICULTUREGENERAL NEWS

    Sokoto, AfDB partner to set up ranches, grazing reserves

    January 15, 2022
    By NewsDesk

Leave a reply Cancel reply

You may interested

  • BUSINESS/BANKING & FINANCEGENERAL NEWS

    Gbajabiamila raises concern over banks’ ‘hidden’ charges, exploitative marketing

  • GENERAL NEWSSECURITY

    Kaduna: Bandits kill 19 in 2 local government areas

  • GENERAL NEWSSCHOOLS/INSTITUTIONSSTUDENTS

    FUTA student wins 2021 National Engineering Project Competition

Latest News

  • June 25, 2022

    FoIA: ‘Traditionalist’ lawyer, Malcom writes CJN for financial details of Supreme Court

  • June 25, 2022

    VIEWPOINT: Scientifically proven mnemonic training method gives your brain super memory, By Joshua Hawkins

  • June 25, 2022

    Hijab: Lagos Muslim students give government  ultimatum to implement S/Court judgment

  • June 25, 2022

    Lone auto crash claims 6 lives, 4 injured in Jigawa

  • June 25, 2022

    2023: INEC publishes particulars of presidential, national assembly candidates

Latest Comments

  • Aliyu Buba Maigoro
    on
    April 3, 2022
    The unfortunate thing is, does your votes count?!

    NULGE TO NIGERIANS: Don’t re-elect governors opposing LG autonomy

  • mubashshir Muhammad sani
    on
    March 22, 2022
    Good news

    FAAC: Federal, states, local governments share N590.546bn as February allocation 

  • AA Sadeeq
    on
    March 16, 2022
    And the US and all its political leaders?

    Biden changes stance, calls Putin ‘a war criminal’

  • Umar Ahmad
    on
    March 12, 2022
    What the USA refused to happen to her in 1960s, she is now trying to force ...

    Russia-Ukraine War: Why Nigerian govt must ban maize exports – Dangote

  • mohammad abubakar kudu
    on
    March 11, 2022
    Very good and updated reports..

    How governors spend security votes, NGF chairman, Fayemi reveals

About us:

ASHE (Pronounced ASH) is an acronym for Agriculture, Science, Health and Environment. Ashenewsonline brings to you news focused in these as well as Politics, Business, Economy and all other aspects of human endeavour.

We are here to feed into Nigeria’s news service chain as a frontier source for citizens journalism. Beyond mentioning, Ashenewsonline encourages people to provide story tips on human rights abuses, corruption, good governance, etc.

Contact Info:

  • No. 5, Maiduguri road 1st floor, Dogon Daji House, Sokoto
  • 07031140009
  • ashenewsonline@gmail.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • FoIA: ‘Traditionalist’ lawyer, Malcom writes CJN for financial details of Supreme Court

    By NewsDesk
    June 25, 2022
  • VIEWPOINT: Scientifically proven mnemonic training method gives your brain super memory, By Joshua Hawkins

    By Editor
    June 25, 2022
  • Hijab: Lagos Muslim students give government  ultimatum to implement S/Court judgment

    By NewsDesk
    June 25, 2022
  • Lone auto crash claims 6 lives, 4 injured in Jigawa

    By Abdallah el-Kurebe
    June 25, 2022
  • Nigeria says 3,598 cholera deaths in 2021 unacceptable

    By Editor
    January 11, 2022
  • Nigeria’s apex bank governor tasks rice millers on FOREX, employment

    By NewsDesk
    February 2, 2022
  • COLUMN: The Craze for Easy Money in Nigeria and The Hanifa Story, By Prof. M ...

    By NewsDesk
    February 6, 2022
  • How governors spend security votes, NGF chairman, Fayemi reveals

    By NewsDesk
    March 11, 2022
  • Aliyu Buba Maigoro
    on
    April 3, 2022

    NULGE TO NIGERIANS: Don’t re-elect governors opposing LG autonomy

    The unfortunate thing is, ...
  • mubashshir Muhammad sani
    on
    March 22, 2022

    FAAC: Federal, states, local governments share N590.546bn as February allocation 

    Good news
  • AA Sadeeq
    on
    March 16, 2022

    Biden changes stance, calls Putin ‘a war criminal’

    And the US and ...
  • Umar Ahmad
    on
    March 12, 2022

    Russia-Ukraine War: Why Nigerian govt must ban maize exports – Dangote

    What the USA refused ...

Photostream

    Follow us

    © Copyright ASHENEWS. All rights reserved. Digital materials on this website may not be published, reproduced, rebroadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PenPlus Media Consults Ltd, Publishers of AshenewsDaily.com | Powered by Growsyn Cloud Platform